-Welcome back! -Great to be back.
-It's so happy to have you here. And this is such a --
this is such a cool show.
This is a show where you talk about your father.
-Mm-hmm. -And you tell stories about him.
You also read stories that he read to you when you were a kid
and then in turn when he was older, you read to him.
-Exactly. -So this is
a very personal show, a very intimate show?
-Yes, but the stories are fantastic stories, and I begin
reading them, but then I perform the hell out of them.
[ Laughter ] -Uh-huh.
-I pretty much do everything I can possibly do as an actor.
-Well, that's a fantastic way to spend a couple hours,
but you, again, because this is more personal, obviously,
you've been on stage a lot on Broadway.
You're going to have people who are talking during shows.
-[ Chuckles ] Oh, yes. You -- and you recently had
an issue where you had to stop the show?
-Yes, yesterday, your producer was in the audience.
[ Laughter ] It wasn't him.
-Thank God. [ Laughs ] -I walked out to a very nice
entrance applause like that.
As soon as the applause died down,
I haven't even begun yet, right in front of me
in the first row center, there was a fellow talking
just about as loud as we're talking right now.
-[ Laughs ] -"I don't want to go
to Sardi's again. I always go to Sar--"
It was like... [ Stammers ] And he kept on talking.
I was talking, and he was talking.
[ Laughter ] And all I could think was,
"I have two hours to go." -[ Laughs ] Yeah.
-And I -- all I could do was say, "is there anything
I can do to help here?" [ Laughter ]
"Is there a problem?
Because only one of us can talk, you know."
And the audience was on my side. -I bet. I would imagine.
[ Laughter ] I would imagine.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-So anyways, it was pretty... -No one said,
"let him talk, John!" -No. [ Laughs ]
-"He's got to figure out a meal after this!"
-[ Laughs ] That's right. -You've obviously had
that happen over the years being on stage a lot.
You have sort of a heroic -- I mean, obviously it was very
heroic for the people in the audience last night.
-Yeah. -But you went above
and beyond one time. -There was -- actually it was
quite a beautiful moment. I was in this wonderful play,
"M. Butterfly" in the late '80s in which I played --
I constantly talked directly to the audience.
I went in and out of scenes.
And there was a scene where a dance was going on.
I was simply watching it. And I noticed a woman,
an old woman, again, in the front row center.
That seems to be the key seat... -Yeah.
-...in all my stories. -Say the ushers go, "you look
like -- you look like trouble. Let me put you in the front."
-Yes, exactly. [ Laughter ]
She was struggling to her feet and trying --
She must have been in her 80s.
Trying to make her way to the aisle.
And as soon as the dance started,
and I began to talk to the audience again,
she was still standing there. I said, "can I help you?
Is there something wrong?" Once again.
She had to be brought to the aisle
laying down on her back. -Oh, my goodness.
-The EMTs came in to take care of her.
The audience went completely silent.
Word got to the house manager, to the stage manager, to me,
that she was all right. I told the crowd.
They started to applaud. I said, "quiet down."
[ Laughter ]
It must have taken about five minutes.
-Oh, wow. -And they -- she was, indeed,
all right, but, you know, as years have gone by,
like a dozen people have told me
they were in the audience that night,
and they'd never seen anything more theatrical.
[ Laughter ] -But then is it true that you
also ran into her son? Is it -- -Oh, yes.
I didn't run into him. I was doing a Q&A
at the Museum of Broadcasting. TV and Broadcasting
and doing -- answering questions from the audience.
A gentleman got up, without a question, but he had a letter.
And he read it out loud.
It was a letter from me to this old woman.
[ Audience "Aw"s ] Years before saying,
"I'm so sorry you missed the rest of the show.
Please come back as my guest and come have tea with me."
And he told the audience that I had done this.
-[ Laughs ] -And I didn't remember.
[ Laughter and applause ]
Yeah, I was like...
All I could say was, "what a nice guy."
[ Laughter ]